The Underrated
by imagine-this-again
Summary: When their team separates, Robin and Wally are forced to be leaders in their groups in order to find each other. But with the members of the Justice League missing and an enemy who's constantly watching their every move, things get very complicated.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: Um. No. **

**A/N: Sorry for errors and whatnot. I probably got some facts wrong, but I'd appreciate it if any of you decided to correct me nicely :] Other than that, please just bear with me. **

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><p>The Underrated<br>Chapter One

**GOTHAM CITY  
>September 9, 6:56 EDT<strong>

"All ready to go, Master Richard?" Alfred asked.

Robin was currently double checking his utility belt, gloves, and other secret pockets that held tiny, deadly weapons. He then placed his mask upon his eyes and grinned at the butler. "I'm ready," he nodded his head. "But where's Bruce?"

"Master Bruce wants you to know that as of right now he is with the League, but he will give you your mission in a few hours," Alfred told Robin as the two swiftly walked up to the scanner that would teleport the young hero to Mount Justice.

Robin's ever-present grin faltered a bit. He raised his eyebrows in confusion toward Alfred. "He never told me about any of this last night. He even said that we were going to go out after my mission…" The Boy Wonder's voice somewhat trailed off before he cleared his throat and regained his easygoing posture.

"You know he would never lie to you. The League must have had a catastrophic emergency for Master Bruce to leave," Alfred said, trying his best to sound comforting as possible.

"Yeah, fine," Robin waved it off. He knew better than to whine and cry like a poor little rich boy. After all, Robin understood that Batman was, well, _Batman_. "I'll just hang out with Wally for a few hours then." Robin punched in the coordinates for Mount Justice. "See ya later, Alfred!" He smiled at his dear friend before stepping through the scanner. Alfred gave the young man a small smile in return.

**MOUNT JUSTICE**  
><strong>7:01 EDT<strong>

In an instant second, Robin was walking into the living room of the area where he knew he would find Superboy and Megan. The two were sitting on the couch as they watched a TV movie and waited for everyone to arrive. And if Robin didn't know any better, he could have sworn that Megan was trying to get Superboy to put his arm around her. He almost started to laugh inappropriately, but instead he chose to simply smirk and play along.

"Hey!" He greeted his teammates before plopping down on the sofa next to the Martian.

"Hello, Robin," Megan grinned at him.

"Hi." Superboy said without taking his eyes off the TV.

"So where is everybody? I know Wally's always late, but Kaldur and Artemis usually arrive the same time I do," Robin said, looking around the empty room. It was eerily quiet.

"They're not here yet." Megan told him. "It's just been me and Superboy here all day."

"What do you mean by that?" Robin asked.

"Well, Red Tornado and Black Canary left a while ago. I don't even remember seeing them this morning actually." Megan shrugged.

"Yeah, Batman's gone too. Apparently something huge is going on with the JLA." Robin said.

"So who's going to deploy us?"

"He'll do it in a few hours. Probably when their big problem blows over."

The three then continued to sit in silence as the movie went on and on. Superboy was looking indifferent as always, Megan kept on subtly glancing back and forth at her sort-of-kind-of-not-really boyfriend and the TV every few seconds, and Robin found himself thinking so hard that his brain was ready to commit suicide.

Dull and dreary were just some of the many appropriate words to describe the situation.

Robin was left trying to analyze the JLA issue. _Is there really something out there so bad that it requires basically every member of the Justin League to help? _He quietly tapped his fingers on his leg. _Who—or what—is causing this problem anyway? C'mon, you can figure this out. _

_An epic alien war? _

_A league of uprising super villains? _

_The earth is going to explode? _

Robin kept on thinking for a few more minutes before he gave up and admitted defeat. He's a genius, and he's very well aware of that, but not even he can figure out something like this without any leads.

_Well, this definitely hurts my ego…_

The three teammates immediately snapped out of any trance they were in once they heard the scanner announcing Aqualad's arrival.

"Laaate!" Robin teased in a singsong voice. Everyone knew that it's better to poke fun at Wally, but a thirteen year old boy only had so much patience.

"I'm sorry, I know I'm late." Kaldur said. Robin, being the detective he was, noticed Kaldur's voice sounded fake, as if the Atlantian was pretending to sound calm and collected as he usually did. Robin scrutinized Kaldur until he said, "It's just that my king… He is no where to be found."

"I'm sure he's gone for a good reason," Megan assured him. "Robin said that the League are all doing, um, uh, er - well I know they're doing something important or else they wouldn't need so many of its members."

"Batman informed you of the Justice League operation?" Kaldur inquired Robin.

"He didn't tell me about it straight to my face, if that's what you were asking," Robin said. "Let's just say that he left me a note on the fridge."

Kaldur nodded, thought it didn't seem to make him feel any better. "Where are Wally and Artemis?"

Robin snorted. "Late. Later than late. So late, that it's way past unprofessional."

"Hmm." Kaldur murmured. He then took a seat and stared at the TV screen with the same emotionless look Superboy had. Instead of staring off mindlessly though, Kaldur began to go into the same thinking frenzy the youngest team member went through earlier, but his mind seemed to be more frazzled than Boy Wonder's.

_Was he captured by a giant fish? No, of course not… That's preposterous. _

Robin realized that there was nothing he can do to lighten this lifeless mood. He sighed as he wished for Wally to save him from this awkward mess or that Megan would say something cheery. Oh, how Robin longed for the happy people.

"Where are they?" Robin muttered impatiently underneath his breath.

He endured approximately eight more minutes of silence and TV before he felt like he was going to crack.

Out of desperation, Robin pulled out his wrist comm to track down Wally. After all, he told Alfred he could wait a few hours for Batman to give them their mission—if he was with Wally. Without him, boredom will murder him painfully. And the fact that the three other teenagers in the room weren't doing anything at all—they were basically increasing the boredom!—made Robin type faster in hopes of locating and contacting his friend.

"What are you doing?" Megan asked, peering over Robin's shoulder.

"I'm finding Wally. For the fastest kid alive, he's slower than moss." Robin said.

"You might as well search for Artemis too."

Robin also typed in Artemis's code, feeling a tad curious about her as well.

"Weird," Robin knitted his eyebrows.

"What's wrong?"

"They're…not existing?" Robin pulled out a wider spectrum of the hologram, revealing the U.S. country to his teammates. "Why aren't they on my map? They should be on there! I mean, all of your costumes have links to my computer, so they should be on the map. Where are the heck could they be?" Robin asked, looking absolutely stumped and a bit frustrated. He even pulled out a map of the world, but there was still no sign of the speedster or the archer.

"Maybe it's broken." Superboy said.

"My stuff's _never_ broken." Robin quickly shot back, obviously offended.

"Now I'm even more worried," Kaldur sighed. "Robin, how does this all work?"

"All of your costumes have a microscopic bug in them so the signal for our comms won't jack up. It's supposed to be helpful, especially if we're out of Miss M's range." Robin explained while frantically scoping out every country for Wally and Artemis.

"And why do you have our links on your arm thing?" Superboy asked, making it sound like it was such a bad thing.

"Because I felt like it," Robin said, smirking a little.

"Well it's a good thing you did have it or else we would have never known about Wally and Artemis's disappearance." Megan said, feeling quite concerned for the two fifteen-year-olds. "Did you check again?"

"Yeah. Several times. They're still not on any of my maps." Robin huffed.

"It's broken." Superboy said.

"No, it's not!" Robin snapped. (And just to make sure, he ran a scan on all of his tech to make sure that it was still flawless.)

"Maybe it _is_ broken…" Megan began, but one look from Robin and she quickly added, "But that's just an assumption. It's probably still in good condition!"

"Ugh," Robin groaned, still furiously typing. "I just don't get it…"

Suddenly, Superboy stood up. "Someone's trying to contact us," he announced. He closed his eyes as he listened more intently to the tiny noise only he was able to hear. "It's Red Arrow."

The four of them jumped up and ran up to the deploying room, which contained the master computer. They were honesty shocked to find that Superboy wasn't lying.

There he was, Red Arrow, on the computer, looking like he just witnessed a terrible bombing firsthand.

* * *

><p><strong>CENTRAL CITY<br>5:49 EDT**

"Roy, is that you?" Wally shouted, recognizing his friend. Roy heard someone calling his name and began to look for the direction of the voice. "Dude, over here!" Roy turned to find a blur that was Wally running up to him until they were face-to-face.

"Wally? What are you doing here?" Roy asked.

"Uh, I kind of live here, remember?" Wally said with a smirk.

"I knew that. I mean, what are you doing _here_?"

The two were standing in a restricted area in the city, in front of one of the JLA's many hidden scanners. Roy seemed like he just exited the scanner while Wally looked ready to hop through it.

"Oh. Yeah. Batman has something he wants us to do. That kind of stuff." Wally answered easily. "What are you doing here though? Never saw much of you around here."

"It's classified." Roy said discreetly.

"Classified? You've got to be kidding me."

Roy raised an eyebrow and gave Wally a look that practically read, 'Do I look like I'm kidding?'

"C'mon, man. We're friends. Sharing is caring, ya know."

"That might have worked in kindergarten, but not now. Sorry, Wally, but it really is classified." Roy said with a frown. Wally continued to whine irritably though, causing the archer to say, "Don't you have to be somewhere?"

"Nah, I have time. I actually left early so the guys can stop complaining about me being late."

"Why waste your time then?" Roy scoffed.

"Jeez, just relax. I'll be fine. It only takes, like, a second to get there, and right now I have about nine minutes left until I'm officially late." Wally said, glancing at his watch.

Roy sighed. "Fine. I'll tell you, but I won't tell you everything."

"Sweet," Wally grinned mischievously.

"I'm here because I'm supposed to be following a certain someone. Someone from the Shadows."

"Why in the world would you go through that?" Wally asked. He thought spying on people constantly was extraordinarily boring, which was why he usually hated it whenever Batman would assign them to do nothing but spy on the enemy. Wally could only do so much until he fell asleep due to the lack of excitement.

"Because apparently the Shadows are working for someone else. Someone more powerful and—" But unfortunately, Roy found himself cut off.

"Now would you look at that? You brought one of your little sidekick friends." A voice said above the two boys.

They looked up to see Cheshire on top of a mountain of old boxes with knives ready in her hands. Roy instantly had his bow and arrow ready, aiming for Cheshire if she was to strike. The assassin tilted her head to the side, and though her mask hid her face, it seemed like she was amused for some sick reason.

"Kid Flash. Go. Now." He ordered his friend tensely.

"But what if you need help—" Wally began, but Cheshire threw a knife at him, quickly shutting him up. Wally easily dodged the knife and began to run at hyper speed when Cheshire continued to throw the sharp blades at him repeatedly, completely ignoring Roy.

"Run into the scanner now!" Roy commanded.

"I didn't even type in the coordinates yet! I'll phase through nothing!" Wally said.

Before Roy could even turn to the scanner to type the coordinates for Wally, Cheshire knocked one of the heavier boxes in front of Roy, which crushed him down temporarily. When Roy pushed the box off of himself, he found Cheshire jumping on top of him, keeping him down with one leg while throwing more daggers at Wally at the same time.

"Your friend is fast, I'll give him that. Though, he's starting to annoy me." Cheshire said to Roy, her leg pressing uncomfortably against his abdomen.

Roy reached forward to grab her leg and tried to push the assassin away from him, but Cheshire held a knife to his throat before his hands made contact with her. "Let's play later, alright? I need to deal with him first." She said in a certain voice that made Roy's skin crawl, in a bad way.

"Flirt much?" Wally scoffed, stopping for just a moment.

"You're one to talk. Rumor has it you're just the same." Cheshire said before throwing a knife that almost hit Wally this time, but he stepped out of the way in the last second. "Oh, so close."

"You're one twisted lady. And the mask is kind of lame, no offense. Try to pick something less dorkier next time."

"Don't give her fashion advice!" Roy roared at Wally incredulously. The knife was still against his throat, and it was starting to dig into his skin harder than he'd like.

"As much as I'd like to stay here and talk with you lovely boys, I still have my mission I need to accomplish. So let's make this simple." Cheshire said. She pointed one of her knives at Wally. "You're coming with me."

"What?" The two boys asked simultaneously, clearly confused.

"I'm sorry, did I stutter?" Cheshire asked rhetorically.

"What makes you think I'm going anywhere with you?" Wally challenged her.

Cheshire sighed. "Fine. I won't ask nicely." She pressed the knife deeper against Roy's skin to the point where it drew blood. "Come with me or I slit his throat."

"You wouldn't…" Wally threatened.

"I really wish I didn't have to. Your friend is just _so _handsome. But if you don't cooperate, I'll have to kill him."

Wally glared at Cheshire.

"Try it. I _dare_ you."

Before Cheshire could even blink, Wally had his hands on her arm and he yanked her from Roy in less than two seconds. He proceeded to kick her with all his strength and sent her flying a short distance away. The young killer landed a good ten feet from the two heroes, her knives unluckily spilling out from her robes. She smirked at Wally behind her mask. "I'm impressed," she told him truthfully. "You're not that much of an incompetent idiot as I thought you were."

"Who said I was!" Wally demanded indignantly.

"Doesn't matter. Let's get out of here." Roy said, rubbing his throat.

"Sorry, boys. I tried to make this thing simple, but you just didn't follow my rules. I guess we have to do this the hard way." Cheshire shrugged. She pulled a device from her pocket and pressed a single red button.

All of a sudden, Wally and Roy saw nothing but explosions and fire before they blacked out.

Roy woke up about half an hour later with his body aching and covered in soot. He stood up as far as he could. What he saw was horrific: the whole area was either demolished or nonexistent. Even the scanner was pitifully destroyed. The worst part, though, was probably the fact that Cheshire and Wally were now gone.

The archer widened his eyes and immediately began to contact Mount Justice.

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><p><strong>AN: To make things clear: this story is mostly adventure, then friendship/romance gets squeezed in it, and mystery & suspense is somewhere in there too. Just trying to please everyone :) And I'm also trying to figure out a way to make sure that the POV's switch fairly between every team member, but we'll see how that goes. Buuut tell me what you thought of chapter one. Did it intrigue you? ;D **


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Thank you for the nice reviews, guys!**

** Oh, and for those who have been asking for Artemis... well, read on (: **

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><p>The Underrated<br>Chapter Two

**LOCATION UNKNOWN  
><strong>**September 9, 11:37 PDT**

Wally woke up feeling a bit woozy. He noticed bruises and a little of bit of blood trailing along his body, but it didn't hurt him much. He assumed a few hours has passed if his body was able to regenerate itself.

The speedster blinked several times before his vision stopped blurring. When things began to clear up, he wished he didn't even open his eyes in the first place. What he saw was a dull, white room with two muscular looking guards sitting lazily in chairs in front of him and a table with fruit to the side—and a wide variety of torture devices behind the men and table.

"Wow. Not the best place to wake up in." Wally said to himself.

One of the guards seemed to have finally noticed that Wally was awake and stood up. He grabbed a plate of cut apples then handed it to Wally.

Wally raised his eyebrows, wondering if these people were actually trying to feed him. He did feel extremely hungry, yes, but it's not like everyday you get fed after you face an explosion then get kidnapped. Wally didn't think much of it though and tried to move forward, but more disappointment came to him when he realized that his arms and ankles were restricted.

"In case you haven't noticed, I can't really move. At all." Wally told the man and gave him a sarcastic smirk.

The man grumbled something incoherent then began to reluctantly feed Wally.

_This is so weird…_ Wally thought to himself as he swallowed down the apple slices one by one. He was then given water before the man returned to his seat.

"So you guys look nice enough." Wally said, starting a small conversation.

The guards glared at Wally after hearing his comment, causing the teenager to immediately say, "I said nice _enough_. What are you doing here, feeding me? What am _I _doing here? Is it experimentation…or blackmail…maybe using me as a hostage…something…_anything_?"

Neither of the men said anything in reply. They simply continued to glare at Wally insignificantly, which was irritating him to say the least.

"If all you're going to do is feed me, then I'll just hang here. They're bound to find me eventually." Wally shrugged.

One of guards snorted, causing Wally to cock an eyebrow.

_A response. FINALLY. _He thought to himself.

But it was definitely not something Wally wanted to hear. He began to stare skeptically at the guards before letting his eyes dart all over the room again, trying to scrutinize it better. From the corner of his eye, Wally saw a high-tech computer that was apparently right behind him. He also noticed that there was a door that was bolted tightly.

Wally's mouth dropped open in shock when he saw a miniscule camera that was located at an angle so it perfectly faced him. Wally assumed that someone was going to torment him brutally with the weapons which were behind the guards, and somebody was going to make a good show out of it.

_So they're going to make me suffer? Great. Just great. _Wally thought irritably.

"You're gonna use those things on me?" Wally asked the guards, nodding towards the torture devices.

"Not us." One of the men, the one who fed him, said.

"Hmm, he speaks. Interesting." Wally said mockingly.

A sound then came from the computer behind Wally. The two guards stood up simultaneously and walked over to the computer. Wally listened intently and heard the men mumble something to the computer. Then the computer spoke back to them in return. The computer had a voice that sounded robotic, but the speedster could tell that it was a person who was talking to the guards and not technology. Wally assumed that whoever was holding him hostage here most definitely did not want to be known.

_Figures. No leads of the psychopath who kidnapped me. _Wally thought.

The robotic voice said, "Dr. J will be coming in soon. Do you have everything set up?"

"Yes, sir," one of the guards replied.

"Excellent."

Wally could hear the men grumble something incoherent, which apparently amused the person behind the robotic voice.

"Just sit, relax, and enjoy. I hope _she _enjoys it as well," the voice.

The computer signed off and the guards returned back to their original area back in their seats. Wally saw that they looked uncomfortable, but they were trying their hardest to look stoic as they did earlier. Wally frowned, almost wondering if these men actually had a conscious deep inside their skulls.

"So from what I heard, I'm guessing my appointment with the doctor is soon," the teenager said with a teasing grin.

The man who fed him (Wally decided to call him Guard A) shot him an unbelievable look while the other man (A.K.A: Guard B) frowned.

"What? We don't share the same humor?" Wally asked, faking disappointment.

Suddenly, the three of them heard the door opening and the sound of shoes clacking. Before Wally could turn his head to see who was walking in, a blindfold covered his eyes tightly. He inwardly groaned, causing the newest member to laugh. From what he heard, Wally could tell it was a woman. He wondered if it was still Cheshire, but this lady wore heels. Cheshire didn't seem like the kind of girl to dress up fancily.

"This is going to hurt. A lot." The person, Dr. J, said bluntly.

_My day keeps on getting better and better…_ Wally thought distantly.

The fifteen-year-old gulped loudly and shut his eyes tightly despite the fact that he couldn't even see in the first place. He could feel his fists clenching and his toes curling out of fear and anticipation. He told himself over and over to relax. It's not like they're going to actually _kill _him, right? After all, they bothered to feed him. Maybe they were just going to spook him…

Wally felt something stab into him, and excruciating jolts of electricity began to pass through him instantly. He howled achingly and began to move frantically, as if he had a chance of escape. This experience reminded him of the mission at Cadmus a long time ago, but this pain was just a little worse and a lasted a little longer.

Then it stopped abruptly.

Wally panted heavily. His body began to hurt in ways he never knew possible, and the energy he once had just a few moments ago disappeared.

"What… the heck… was _that _for?" Wally asked in between his breaths.

Instead of an answer, Wally felt more jolts of electricity at a higher dose. He yelled louder than before as the vicious pain flowed within him. He felt his legs instinctively kicking, but his feet were so restricted that he ended up vibrating. As Wally screamed, he began to mentally demand why he couldn't course through solid objects like his Uncle Barry.

It stopped again and whatever was in him was pulled away. Wally had a feeling he was bleeding again, causing him to groan once more.

He heard Dr. J start to walk away, but before she closed the door shut, Wally wanted to tell the woman that she will regret what she did to him; that the Justice League—especially his uncle—will be so furious that she'll need to go into hiding for years. (And he wanted to call her a few horrible names here and there, but that was just part of his teenage mind speaking.)

Instead of voicing his threats out, Dr. J said, "I wouldn't try anything if I were you, kid."

"Why…not?" Wally wheezed out.

"If you think that was bad, the other one has it ten times worse. If you do _anything_, she'll definitely get it."

The door was then shut, and his blindfold was removed by one of the men. Wally blinked and noticed that his eyes were watery. He immediately shut his eyes again, not wanting the guards to see that he was tearing up. He continued to breathe heavily though. But no matter how much he inhaled and exhaled, it seemed like there wasn't enough air to sustain him.

_They have someone else too? Who? The lady said, 'she.' So it's either Megan or Artemis…_ Wally thought tiredly.

_Megan or Artemis. _

_Artemis or Megan. _

_One of the girls…_

Naturally, Wally began to feel concern about Megan. He feared that she was suffering worse than he was, and he hated how sweet and kind Megan had to endure something like this when she didn't deserve it in the first place. He was very well aware that Megan can obviously take care of herself, but Wally couldn't help but worry.

Then his thoughts slowly drifted to Artemis. He couldn't really figure out if he felt worried or relieved—yes, relieved, but not in the bad way. Wally believed that Artemis would stick it out through the end and was probably stronger than Megan. She wouldn't give up without a fight. But then again…she's only human.

"Which one?" Wally breathed out to the guards.

They were silent.

"Which one do you have?" Wally said. It seemed like the more he spoke, the weaker he sounded.

He opened his eyes and glowered at the men before him. Guard B attempted to look expressionless by keeping his eyes firmly planted to the ground while Guard A apparently threw up since there was vomit on the floor in front of him. Wally had a sudden rush of content when he realized that the men didn't necessarily like seeing a fifteen year old kid being tortured like that.

But that didn't stop him from demanding an answer.

"Which. One."

"You don't know which one?" The guards honestly looked surprised.

"Would I be asking if I did?" Wally spat.

After a moment of silence, Guard B spoke up in a quiet voice. "They have the girl."

"There are two girls on my team. Who do you have?"

"I…I don't know…"

"What do you mean you don't know?" Wally muttered darkly. He would have yelled at them, threatening them to answer him properly, but he was getting feebler and feeling more pathetic by the second.

"We haven't seen her. We've been placed in this room with you ever since you got here."

Wally stayed silent as he glared at his shoes menacingly. He wished he had Superboy's powers right now. He had the biggest urge to hurl something across the room then crush the entire building.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't bust myself out of here and bring all of you to jail." Wally bargained, looking up at the guards.

Guard A sighed then shared a look with Guard B.

"You don't want to do that." Guard A warned.

"Why?" Wally growled.

"Whoever she is… she's watching you. She doesn't want you to get hurt, and I'm pretty sure you feel the same for her."

Wally felt himself paling.

Megan or Artemis… was watching him go through all that?

* * *

><p><strong>MOUNT JUSTICE<br>****7:18 EDT**

"Wally," was all Roy said to the team before he began to cough violently.

Robin stepped closer toward the master computer and narrowed his eyes at the screen. "What happened? Where's Kid?" He demanded forcefully.

"Let us know where you are first, though. You look injured, and you may require medical attention. Tell us your coordinates. We will pick you up." Kaldur said. Robin looked ready to protest, but the leader placed a caring hand on the boy's arm, causing him to calm down a notch.

"Yeah. We'll come and get you." Robin agreed somewhat reluctantly.

"Won't help," Roy said in between his coughs and heavy breaths. "The scanner is jammed. Cheshire really messed things up this time."

"Cheshire did all of this? But why?" Megan asked skeptically.

"She said that she needed Wally."

"Why would she want Wally?" Superboy asked confusedly.

"I don't think it was Cheshire in particular who wanted Wally. She obviously must be working for someone or some sort of company." Robin said, analyzing the situation. "But who? It might be the Shadows since she's pretty tight with them, but they don't really have a reason to kidnap Wally…"

"We'll talk about this later, hopefully when Batman has contacted us. For now, our first priority is to help Red Arrow. Then he can tell us everything he knows." Kaldur said authoritatively.

"I'll get the bioship ready!" Megan announced. She flew off in a second, leaving the boys to figure out where Roy was located.

"I'm in Central City. Right where the scanner should be located. You should know where that is, Robin," he said before cutting off his signal.

Robin sighed, showing a tinge of worry. He then quickly recollected himself and turned to Kaldur. "The moment we get to him, the _second _we give him medical treatment, I'm grilling him about Wally and there's nothing you can say about that."

"I understand." Kaldur nodded respectively.

Robin visibly relaxed. He showed off a frown and a sad expression that made him look as young as he actually was. "I hope he's still alive," he said, his voice trailing off slightly.

"You know he is, Robin." Kaldur said encouragingly.

"Yeah. You can't outrun the fastest kid alive." Superboy said in the nicest voice anyone has ever heard him speak.

"I just don't get it though. Why would they take Wally? What did he do?" Robin asked.

"I'm not sure about that, but I'm not going to stand here and ask questions when we can find out ourselves." Superboy said firmly.

Robin and Kaldur gave their teammate a look, causing Superboy to say, "I don't know about you guys, but I don't think I'll be able to sleep without Kid out of harm's way. Anything can happen to him."

"Let's move." Kaldur ordered.

The boys ran off and met Megan at the bioship. She was already sitting at the pilot's chair when they stepped in. The boys sat down at their rightful seats and strapped themselves in, feeling eager and anxious all at the same time.

"Setting coordinates for Central City," Megan said aloud. She gripped the controllers tightly as the back door of the cave began to open in front of the ship. When it was fully opened, Megan lifted the ship into the air before camouflaging their appearance.

Then, they were off.

"Don't worry, guys," Megan said lightly. She could tell that Robin, Kaldur, and Superboy felt anything but bright and optimistic. Heck, she was feeling the same as well. "We'll find Wally."

"Hopefully," Kaldur said quietly.

**CENTRAL CITY  
>7:28 CDT<br>**

In a few hours, the ship landed gracefully in Central City, exactly where Roy told them to go. They were astonished to find the place in ruins. Everything was either broken beyond repair or completely destroyed. It made the team wonder how Roy managed to even contact them after such an explosion—and it made them worry about whether or not Wally even survived it.

The team walked out of the ship and immediately found Roy leaning weakly against what used to be the scanner. They finally noticed that his uniform was torn and his mask was almost singed off entirely. His physical appearance caused Robin and Kaldur to rush up to their old friend, placing his arms around their shoulders so they could support him up.

"How are you doing?" Kaldur asked him.

"Well I might have been better if you guys got here faster. I feel like I'm bleeding to death." Roy said.

"Beggars can't be choosers, Roy," Robin said with a tiny smile.

When they finally got Roy into the ship, the team strapped him into the medical table at the corner of the ship (which was placed in there after the Bialya accident), and they began to treat him to the best of their knowledge. Thankfully, most of Roy's injuries were minor, but some were as bad as it could get.

"It looks like he lost some of his hearing, but it seems like it's bound to come back. He has a few cuts and bruises here and there. What we really need to do is patch up that gaping hole around his waist. Roy's right: he might actually bleed to death if we don't do something about that." Robin said as he studied Roy.

Megan pulled out a long roll of bandages from the emergency kit then handed them to Robin. The Boy Wonder skillfully wrapped the bandages around Roy's waist to stop the bleeding for the meantime. "We might have to get you to a hospital, or something. I don't think we can do much here," he said apologetically.

"Fine," Roy mumbled.

"You want us to go to a hospital? Dressed like this?" Superboy asked Robin incredulously.

"You have a point." Robin frowned. "But where else can we go?"

"We can always try out the little medical center back at Mount Justice. I know that it hasn't been touched in decades, but we might figure out how to operate it." Megan suggested hopefully.

Robin folded his arms across his chest then glanced over at Kaldur. "What do you think?" He asked him.

"I agree with Superboy and Megan. If we go to a city hospital, our appearances will blow our ability to work on the slide for Batman; and I believe that if we combine our intelligence all together, we will figure out how to use the medical center properly." Kaldur said.

"Then Mount Justice it is." Robin said.

He turned to leave and return back to his seat in the ship, but he suddenly felt Roy grasping his arm. "Don't worry about Wally. He's alright." Roy assured him kindly.

"I have a feeling he's probably alive—but alright? Well, I'm wouldn't be too sure about that." Robin said with a sigh.

The team strapped themselves in comfortably into their seats and waited for take off. When Megan was about to lift the bioship up into the air again, she widened her eyes in alarm as she clasped her hands on her mouth. They boys gave her a confused look, wondering what set her off.

"Guys, don't you feel like we're forgetting something?" She said in a shaky voice. "Or, _someone_?"

A light bulb seemed to have turned on above the boys' heads.

"Artemis." Superboy, Kaldur, and Robin said simultaneously.

* * *

><p><strong>LOCATION UKNOWN<br>****September 10, 1:04 PDT**

Artemis felt someone's hand shaking her gently. She stirred and groaned in frustration, swatting the hand away. She felt the need to grab the covers and pull them over her head, something she usually does whenever her mother wakes her up for school. But for some reason, Artemis had a feeling that something here was wrong.

"Wake up, Artemis," a familiar voice said.

It definitely wasn't her mother.

"Wake up," the voice said more gently.

Artemis opened her eyes and saw that she was in a white, dull room. She was currently lying down on a comfy bed (much nicer than the mattress she owned back home), there was a large computer to her right, and a door that was bolted shut in the corner. Other than that, there was nothing else in the room besides her and the person in front of her.

"Dad?" Artemis said softly, feeling absolutely shocked.

"How's my favorite little archer?" Sporstmaster smirked.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: And there you have chapter two. Thank you for waiting for the update, and I hope you liked it!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Here's chapter three! I tried to get it in before the week ended, but that clearly didn't happen. But I was close! **

**Thank you all for your lovely reviews! I appreciate them so much. **

**Oh, and sorry about leaving chapter two on a cliffhanger. I just _had _to ;D And I have no idea how Sportsmaster and Artemis would act, so I'm just going to write how I think they would act based on the personalities they showed on YJ. Sorry if I screw it up :/ **

* * *

><p>The Underrated<br>Chapter Three

**MOUNT JUSTICE  
><strong>**September 9, 9:42 EDT**

"Feeling better, Red Arrow?" Megan asked the male archer as he lay on the medical bed. When the boys finished undressing him and putting him into a hospital gown, the whole team helped with treating his wounds and figuring out how to use the technology in the medical wing of Mount Justice.

"No," Roy mumbled.

"Well, do you not feel like the world and life itself sucks?" Robin asked with a tiny smirk.

"I guess you could say that."

"Well that's good! And according to the monitor, you'll be able to get your hearing back in a few hours if we continue to treat it right. It must have been one loud explosion if it caused you to become temporarily deaf." Megan said, giving Red Arrow a sympathetic look.

"You have no idea." Roy said, rubbing his damaged ears.

"Roy, do you think you are capable of telling us what happened?" Kaldur asked the question everyone wanted to know.

Red Arrow grumbled something incoherent and rubbed his tired eyes. "Yeah, I'll tell you what happened," he finally said.

After explaining what occurred in Central City, the team torn between feeling glad that they had a new lead to find Wally but frustrated since not only do they not know where they can even start to look for their speedster, but they still don't know where Artemis is either.

"If Cheshire took Wally, then someone else must have taken Artemis." Robin stated.

"Someone took her?" Roy asked, sounding a bit startled.

"Yeah. I mean, that's what the evidence show. She and Wally did not show up for tonight's mission, and when I tried to locate them, they were said to be nonexistent on my wrist comm.," Robin explained.

"This has the Shadows written all over it; I'm sure of it." Roy said.

"I'm sure the Shadows have _something _to do with it, but I don't think they're the only ones behind it…" Robin said warily. "This just doesn't seem like their kind of stuff, ya know? I mean, kidnapping two members of our team for no apparent reason? That's kind of a waste of time. And it's not like they took Wally and Artemis as hostages. They know very well that doing something like that will tick off the Justice League. All this really looks like is some prank to confuse us."

"Speaking of the Justice League, Batman has made no contact?" Kaldur said, as if he finally remembered the strange absence of the team's mentors.

Robin stared down at his wrist comm. and saw that it was close to 10:00. "No call… weird…"

"Check again." Superboy insisted. He himself was growing more and more worried by the second.

"Yeah, nothing," Robin said quietly after checking once more.

"Why don't you try calling him?" Kaldur suggested.

"I doubt he would pick up. He said that he was really busy doing who-knows-what."

"But this is an emergency. He'll understand."

Robin sighed and began to dial. "Okay, but if I get in trouble, you all are going down with me."

The teenagers waited nervously as they listened onto the connection being made in order to reach Batman. To their horror, the hologram on Robin's wrist comm. lit up in bright red and showed a message that said, '_Your connection is nonexistent.'_

"I am so not whelmed, you guys." Robin said in a shaky voice.

"Maybe something important is going on, but we're just missing the big picture. Stuff like this just can't be happening coincidentally, right?" Megan said, flying around the room in between the boys.

"Megan has a point. This seems to be too properly organized for it to be a series of accidents." Kaldur agreed.

"So let's analyze." Robin said. "Wally was kidnapped by Cheshire for a valuable reason. We also believe Artemis has been taken for a certain reason as well. And the Justice League is totally MIA. What does this conclude?"

The room was silent.

"Sounds like a big mind game to me." Superboy spoke up.

"A mind game," Robin repeated to himself.

"No offense, but why would anyone want to target you?" Roy asked.

"Yes, why would anybody want to target _us_?" Kaldur questioned.

"I don't know," was all the team could think of saying.

The teenagers felt their chests tightening, their stomachs flipping, and their hearts beating faster and faster. All of this was just too much to take in, and they had no idea how to respond to it. Should they go and attempt to search for Wally and Artemis? Should they go look for the Justice League members? Or should they stay here, safe and sound, away from all the trouble?

But there was one thing they knew for sure: whether they wanted to admit it or not, they were very afraid.

"I suggest we all should get some sleep. We need it." Kaldur ordered the team. "You should probably rest too," he said to Roy.

"Yeah, like I have anywhere to go." Roy huffed. As the team began to exit the room, though, the archer quickly added, "Thanks for helping me back there."

The team nodded their heads and gave Roy tiny smiles before heading toward the living room of the cave. Once they were out of earshot from Roy, Kaldur ordered Megan to open her telepathic connection, told Superboy to keep his ears wide open, and made sure that Robin and his wrist comm. never separated.

"Just in case," Kaldur remarked.

The teenagers understood their orders then they all filed into their separate rooms. For Kaldur and Robin, it was strange to spend the night here at Mount Justice. They've done it before, but it was still an unwelcoming feeling nonetheless. Robin preferred his thousand dollar mattress and Kaldur yearned for the ocean. But they didn't have a choice, just how Megan and Superboy didn't have a choice either.

They all dealt with it without complaint throughout the night and waited for the call they hoped for.

* * *

><p><strong>LOCATION UNKNOWN<br>****September 10, 1:05 PDT**

"Dad? What… what's going on?" Artemis sat up straight, pulling the warm covers up to her shoulders as she narrowed her eyes. "Why am I here? Did you bring me here? I thought you said I could actually stay…"

"Now, now, don't hurt yourself with all these questions. You have to know by now that I usually don't answer them." Sportsmaster scoffed, amused.

Artemis pushed herself off the bed and walked toward the other side of the room, as far away as she could get from him. She folded her arms in an irritated matter and simply glared. Artemis knew she shouldn't be as annoyed as she is right now. After all, it's not like her father kidnapped her in the middle of the night and put her through one of his dangerously strange "tests." But she definitely was not going to give him the satisfaction of her indifference.

"That's no way to treat your dad, Artemis," Sportsmaster said, feigning hurt.

"This is no way to treat your daughter, Dad," Artemis spat back wittily. Then her whole body visibly tensed when she realized something. "Mom will be so worried," she whispered to herself.

Sportsmaster seemed to have dropped his careless act once Artemis pointed that out. "I left her a note before I took you," he said in a curt voice.

Artemis frowned. Though she would never tell her father, she appreciated the fact that he even bothered to inform her mother about her sudden _disappearance_. Artemis of all people knew how frantic her mom got whenever she vanished in the middle of the night then show up days later unannounced.

Sportsmaster raised his eyebrows expectantly as he waited for what he knew would come next.

He then grabbed his daughter around the stomach as she tried to escape. He felt her kicking and elbowing and punching against him as she threatened and insulted him continuously.

"You're so unbelievable! You said I could actually stay with them! _You promised!_ Now let me go!" Artemis demanded like a five-year-old.

"Calm down," Sportsmaster said as he struggled to keep his child contained in the room. "Don't make me hit you."

"So what? I'll just hit you back."

"With what? If you haven't realized, the only weapons you can properly use are back home in Gotham. If you think you can go one-on-one against me then think again." Sportsmaster said cynically.

Artemis froze as her father's words sank in. Her eyes immediately began to dart around the room, hoping that Sportsmaster was lying about her being powerless. Unfortunately, he was right: her bow and arrows were nowhere to be found.

"You're such a jerk, Dad!" Artemis hit him in the shoulder as hard as she could, causing him to curse and loosen his hold on her.

Artemis took this moment to slip out of Sportsmaster's grip and run toward the bolted door. Before she could even touch the handle, she felt something pierce through her waist and a strong jolt of electricity passed through her for a short moment. Artemis screamed in pain. She then felt her body weakening, which led her to drop limply onto the floor.

She saw her father hovering above her. He pulled some sort of tiny gun out of her waist and cleaned the blood off of it; then he bandaged the small scar on his daughter's waist. He carried her back onto the bed and laid her there comfortably.

"Why did you do that? Why would you deliberately shoot me?" Artemis hissed as she glowered at her father.

"You made me do it," was all Sportsmaster said.

Artemis quietly mumbled something that sounded like an "I hate you," before turning her back against Sportsmaster, not wanting to see his face.

"C'mon, don't be like that. If you didn't start running off then I wouldn't have done that." Sportsmaster said in an annoyed voice. "It's not like I gave you a jolt that could have killed you."

"Wow Dad, thanks. That makes me feel so much better." Artemis said with as much sarcasm she could muster.

"Hey, be thankful. That other kid has it a hundred times worse than you."

"What kid?" Artemis asked, turning her head slightly so she could get a good look of her dad.

Instead of answering her, Sportsmaster leaned against the wall as he gave his daughter a superior look. He looked determined to get her where she needed to be: in a hopless situation. "So what if I told you that if you tried to escape, the kid will practically be tortured to death." He said, giving Artemis the same instructions as 'the kid' received just last night.

"What kid? Who are you talking about? You have someone else locked up in here?" Artemis asked, facing forward toward her father.

"What did I say about asking too many questions? Jeez, you _still _don't listen to me." Sportsmaster laughed humorously.

"Just answer me, Dad!" Artemis demanded.

"Calm yourself." Sportsmaster warned. He looked more like an authoritative father than a mercenary for a split second.

Artemis instinctively kept silent but the worry, fear, and anger were still boiling within her.

"I want to go home." Artemis finally said after a long pause.

"To tell you the truth, I don't really want you here either." Sportsmaster admitted.

His daughter's eyes lit up, and she found enough strength to sit up straight against the headboard of the bed. "Really?" She said in a relieved voice. Sportsmaster almost felt guilty as Artemis gave him a glad look, but he pushed his emotions aside and forced himself to think about his job before anything else.

"Yeah, I guess. But you know I have to keep you here."

"Why, though? You've already assigned me my mission, which I'm still in the middle of, and I'm doing really well at it! Don't you need me back home instead of here?"

"Well my boss has a change of plans. If you're home then everything will be ruined." Sportsmaster said, somewhat irritably.

Artemis shakily stood up and looked at her father with a serious expression. "So tell me this: why am I here?"

Sportsmaster sighed and decided to answer. "You're here so _they _won't be able to figure anything out," he revealed.

Artemis's gave him a confused look. "What do you mean?"

"Sorry Artemis, that's all I'm gonna say," her father smirked.

"Ugh," Artemis scoffed. She folded her arms once again and returned back to glaring at Sportsmaster. "You do realize that you basically gave me no information whatsoever, right? After that pathetic excuse, you know I'll try to escape the moment you leave."

"Like I said before: try anything and the kid gets it." Sportsmaster challenged. "But go ahead. Try something. It's not like I care what happens to him… but you might care."

"Please, you're just playing games with me again. I know you don't have anyone here. If you did then you would have told me who it was by now." Artemis rolled her eyes.

"Funny how you say that."

Sportsmaster directed Artemis's attention to the large computer. He typed out a sequence onto the keyboard before showing a tape that was recordered earlier into the night. He then turned back to his daughter to see just what he wanted to see: horror, pain, repulsion, and sadness all mixed up into one.

Artemis watched as a haughty-looking lady tortured Wally cruelly, as if she had no conscience. It made her want to throw up and cry at the same time.

For a moment, Artemis completely forgot how annoying, conceited, and disgustingly flirtatious Wally West was. She forgot how, although they were not technically 'enemies,' they were not friends either. She forgot every little irritating thing about him.

"Oh, Wally…" she whispered.

When the speedster began to cry behind his blindfold, Artemis lost it.

"You let him go right now!" She yelled at Sportsmaster. "He doesn't deserve this! He didn't do anything! _Let him go now!_"

Sportsmaster raised his eyebrows, smirking a little. "We all had a feeling you'd react this way if we brought this certain kid instead of one of the others; I'm just glad I called it. I knew he was a perfect choice."

"What. Are you. Talking about." Artemis murmured darkly.

"You have a relationship with him, right?" Sportsmaster said in a teasing voice.

"Of course I have a relationship with him! He's on my team! I have no choice but to have a relationship with him!" Artemis yelled, attempting to avert her father's speculations.

"No, not that kind of relationship." Sportsmaster said. "He's kind of like your boyfriend, isn't he?"

"No. He's not." Artemis said tersely. She fisted her hands as she felt her stomach twisting and turning from the amused and knowing expression her father gave her.

"And for a second I thought daughters were supposed to bring their boyfriends home to meet the father." Sportsmaster laughed. "Imagine what would happen if you actually did do that, huh? The kid would have been dead by now. Then again, he's fast, so I might have had some trouble killing him."

Artemis gave Sportsmaster a disgusted look as he joked about the situation lightly. "He's not my boyfriend, so you have no reason to keep him here. Just let him go," she begged in a quieter tone.

"Fine, fine. I'll believe you when you say he's not your boyfriend." Sportsmaster said. "But don't try to tell me that you feel something for him."

"Ew." Artemis said, wrinkling her nose (that was usually the first thing she said whenever people, like Megan, talked about her and Wally).

"I certainly know that girls don't throw a scene like you just did for a _just _a teammate."

Artemis didn't know how to respond to that, nor did she even want to. She simply looked down as guilt flowed into her. It was her fault why Wally was here, and it was her fault why Wally had to go through all of that brutal pain. Deep down inside her, she knew she would save him if she could…

"So we have a compromise. You stay here like a good little girl would, and the kid will live."

Artemis continued to look anywhere but up at her father, but in a confident voice she asked once more, "Why am I here? Why is Wally here with me? And I want the real answer, Dad. Not your stupid metaphors or jokes."

"How about I answer one of those questions truthfully. That enough for you?"

"Better than nothing," Artemis muttered reluctantly.

"That boy is here with you so you won't be tempted to do something that would anger us. He's like your reality check."

Artemis's eyes widened as her father's words processed into her mind. "That is so cruel!" She scolded Sportsmaster.

"What can I say? The world is a cruel, cruel place."

Artemis finally looked straight into her father's eyes and gave him a cold, harsh stare.

Sportsmaster looked triumphant on the other hand and began to head towards the bolted door. "Sleep, Artemis. You might just need it."

When Sportsmaster closed the door behind him, Artemis suddenly heard a slight buzzing noise. She turned her head toward the direction of the noise and saw that it was coming toward the computer. To her surprise (and utmost joy) she realized that her father accidentally forgot to turn the computer off before he left.

Artemis immediately ran up to the computer and searched for some sort of camera. Luckily, this was a modern-style computer so there was indeed a camera at the top of the monitor. Artemis then placed her fingers on the keyboard and typed up a numerical sequence all members of the team were required to memorize. She then waited anxiously for the response.

When the computer made a _ting_, signaling that its connection was completed, Artemis saw a fuzzy image on the screen that was slowly growing clearer and clearer by the second.

It was a black-haired boy with eyes that were always masked.

"…Robin? Is that you?" She asked timidly.

"Artemis?" Robin said in shock and relief.

Before Artemis could even say anything else, the computer went black.

"No!" Artemis cried. She tried to turn the computer on again, but she was greeted with a simple message.

_Nice try, kid. _

_But now you managed to get on ALL of our nerves this time, not just your father's. _

_Can't wait to see what's in store for Wally next time…_

"No," Artemis whispered.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Anyone excited for new episodes? **

**I was going to have Artemis contact the whole team at first, but then I read that one of the new YJ episodes will be based on Robin and Artemis having to save the team, so I had to add an Artemis/Robin scene in there. I don't know why, but I've always loved them. Not ship-love. Just their cute human, snarky friendship. Plus, if you haven't noticed, I have this thing for Wally/Artemis x] **


End file.
